A number of right wing bloggers – and journalists who should know better – have been trying to make hay with the prime minister’s refusal to visit Crewe and Nantwich. Guido is using his typical invective to attack GB, but I can’t help feeling that the criticism would have been no less harsh had GB decided, after all, to visit the by-election. Tony Blair, in 1997, very briefly deviated from the convention that prime ministers don’t take part in by-elections, before wisely reinstating it.

Nevertheless, I think it would be only fair to take these critics – including Guido – seriously… provided they can honestly state that they also called for GB to visit the Sedgefield and Ealing Southall by-elections last July.